Kaufman Day 3

Speech:  Kiddo had a fabulous first session with Nancy, where again he said so many words and phrases it filled an entire notebook page, two columns wide.  Way to go Kiddo!

I must admit, she's tough on these kids.  She expects lots of sounds and words and good behavior out of them.  I think it's what gives her such amazing results, but I have to be honest, sometimes it makes me wince.  Like when she'll push Kiddo's hand away from his mouth so she can hear him better.  I understand why she does it, but we've taught Kiddo hand cues, and so he uses them to remind himself of how to make the sound.  Nancy told me she doesn't think the cues are actually helping him, but I disagree.  Some of the sounds he can't make unless he's using the cues, such as his "t"s and sometimes his "m"s.  Also when Kiddo doesn't understand what she's asking him to do, or he gets distracted, you can see her get a little frustrated with him.  But I think that's because she's so eager to get him talking again, working on his sounds and words and so I understand where she's coming from.  Nancy isn't this perfect apraxia goddess, but she sure does get the job done and has amazing results!  She gets more words and phrases out of him in a 30 minute session as I think I get out of him in a few days.  Seriously.

For his second session of the day, I was armed with notebook and pen for another round, but Nancy told me to come in for this session, and to prompt him with some of the phrases.  I must admit, it's intimidating to be trying to do what the so called "Queen of Apraxia" does so effortlessly, but her feedback was so very helpful and will be what will stick with me best when we get home and are Nancy Kaufmanless.  She wants to do the same thing for our last session tomorrow.

Taking a break between speech sessions.  He loves this little car cushion. :)

OT: In OT today he got to swing in this awesome swing that has a small ball pit in the bottom to work on his vestibular system.  He loved it.  He got to do some crawling through tunnels to work on his proprioception, and then we worked on his oral motor stuff.  Jessica showed me tools to use to strengthen Kiddo's jaw, and the Z-Vibe, a vibrating tool that encourages the tongue to follow it.  She put some Pixie Stix dust on the Z-Vibe and put it on the roof of his mouth, and we finally had success with him getting his tongue to the roof of his mouth every single time.  We need his tongue to go there for him to be able to say t, d, and n's properly.  Something tells me I'll need to invest in a Z-Vibe. ;)  We also were working on his blowing without puffing out his cheeks using a whistle and blowing bubbles, and he is getting much better with it.

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Little Brother's adventures of the day with Grandma included going to an indoor play place/coffee shop called Jungle Java, where he made a new friend.  He also had fun exploring the hotel grounds and this little playground on our hotel's property.

After all Kiddo's hard work, I took him to the hotel pool for some chill time, where he had a blast, and every time I'd ask him if he was all done or wanted more pool, the response was always "more pool".  Finally, fingers all prunified, I told him it was time to go back to our hotel room, where he asked me without any prompting "Go to elevator?"  Uh, yeah kid, we can ride the elevator as many times as you want if you use words and phrases like that!!!!

Can't believe tomorrow is our last day at the Kaufman Children's Center. We have learned so much, but still have so much more to learn.